Iowa Great Places awards
$3 million in grants
For Immediate Release: June 27, 2007
DES MOINES – The Iowa Department
of Cultural Affairs today announced it has awarded $3 million in grants
to 23 projects in six Iowa Great Places – Adams County, Dubuque,
Fairfield, Guttenberg, Jackson County and Mason City.
Iowa Great Places is an initiative that combines state
government resources with local assets to help Iowans make their communities,
regions, districts or neighborhoods great places to live, work and raise
a family.
“This has been an inspiring and rewarding week for
Iowa Great Places,” DCA Director Cyndi Pederson said. “With
the announcement of these grants, we are moving forward with our Great
Places partners to achieve their visions for their communities.”
Funding for the $3 million in grants announced today was
approved by the Legislature for infrastructure projects in Adams County,
Dubuque, Fairfield, Guttenberg, Jackson County and Mason City. The grants
were awarded through a competitive application process.
“We received $4.3 million in grant requests from
these six Great Places,” Pederson said. “We would have liked
to make additional investments but we must work with the funding that
is available to us.”
State agencies continue to work with the six Great Places
and Iowa’s three pilot places – Clinton, Coon Rapids and
Sioux City – to achieve their visions by identifying technical
assistance and existing programs such as grant and financial aid programs,
and the State Historic Preservation Tax Credit program.
Meanwhile, the process for identifying Iowa’s next
Great Places is already underway.
Iowans interested in submitting proposals for consideration
as a Great Place can consult with Iowa Great Places Citizen Advisory
Board members next month. Contact Iowa Great Places Coordinator Aaron
Todd at aaron.todd@iowa.gov
by 4:30 p.m. July 11, 2007 to arrange an appointment. Participation
in the consultation process is not required, but it is recommended.
Advisory board members will consult with Iowans about
proposals at 1 p.m., July 16, 2007 at the State Historical Building,
600 E. Locust Street in Des Moines’ Historic East Village.
The consultation will offer a brief overview of the Great
Places program – what is a Great Place and what will be important
components of applications. Prospective applicants will be able to discuss
their vision with a small group of Great Places Board members and receive
feedback and suggestions. The consultation will be an informal presentation;
applicants may bring draft proposal and visual materials, but PowerPoint
presentations will not be allowed.
The deadline for submitting Intent to Apply Letter is
August 1, 2007. Guidelines for this letter will be included in the Proposal
Guidelines document posted July 2, 2007, on www.iowagreatplaces.gov.
The Intent to Apply Letter will indicate representatives
from the community, county or region plan to apply for the Great Places
designation by September 4, 2007, and provide a short description of
the location’s vision. Coaches from various state agencies will
be assigned to assist in the application process.
Completed Great Places proposals will be due at 4:30 p.m.
September 4, 2007 at the State Historical Building, 600 E. Locust Street,
Des Moines, IA 50319. More information about Iowa Great Places and this
year’s schedule is available at www.iowagreatplaces.gov.
The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs is responsible
for developing the state’s interest in the areas of the arts,
history and other cultural matters with the advice and assistance from
its two divisions: the State Historical Society of Iowa and the Iowa
Arts Council. DCA preserves, researches, interprets and promotes an
awareness and understanding of local, state and regional history and
stimulates and encourages the study and presentation of the performing
and fine arts and public interest and participation in them. It implements
tourism-related art and history projects as directed by the General
Assembly and designs a comprehensive, statewide, long-range plan with
the assistance of the Iowa Arts Council to develop the arts in Iowa.
More information about DCA is available at www.culturalaffairs.org.
Following is a list of projects, grant amount received
and project summary:
Adams County
Lake Icaria Improvements – $150,000
The Adams County Conservation Board proposes the following improvements
at Lake Icaria: construction of 6 cabins, 19 current electric sites
would be updated to full-service, 13 campsites would be updated to electric
sites, the tent area would be reconstructed for approximately 25 sites,
add a camper dump-station, construct two user-friendly check-in stations
at each campground, and remodel seven restrooms including conversion
of pit toilets to flush-type restrooms.
Creative First Impressions – $13,400
Corning Center for the Fine Arts transformed the interior of a hardware
store into a viable art gallery/studio in 2005. This project would continue
their goal of transforming this hardware store into an inviting destination
by repairing the side and back walls, renovating the façade,
and improving signage. Their goal is to express the vision of the art
center before patrons enter the building.
French Icarian Colony Continuing Education –
$97,600
This phase of the French Icarian Colony Project includes: replication
and installation of the basement windows of the refectory; the installation
of a geothermal heating and cooling system for the site as well as the
hook-up of the refectory and schoolhouse; Archeological Survey of the
remaining 20 acres of the site; and hire an architect to provide a conceptual
design and preliminary cost estimates for the Visitors’ Center.
Corning Opera House & Elevator Shaft –
$115,000
The proposed elevator will be an ADA compliant, in-ground, single jack
elevator with a 2,500-pound capacity. The three stop elevator will be
installed inside a masonry block shaft and placed adjacent to a 7 x
7’ mechanical room. Due to the location of the elevator in relation
to the rest of the project, the Opera House Board has been advised by
the project architect and mechanical engineer that this is the next
phase of the project that needs to be completed before permanent walls
and the balcony floor are reconstructed.
Johnny Carson Birthplace Society Phase I –
$28,000
The Johnny Carson Birthplace Society’s mission is to preserve
and promote the legacy of Johnny Carson, a native of Corning, Iowa.
The Society will purchase Johnny Carson’s birthplace home, stabilize
the foundation of the house and update plumbing.
Dubuque
America’s River Phase II – $250,000
This project will expand the Mississippi River Museum campus with Rivers
of America Museum, large screen theater, children gallery science center,
and river research center.
Library Renovation – $250,000
This project will expand Dubuque’s library services by renovating
the historic portion of Carnegie-Stout Library offering naturally lit
reading areas with a coffee bar and by creating space to expand the
existing collection, increase computer/Internet resources and deepen
the community’s commitment to literacy for people of all ages.
Bilingual Hike/Bike Trail Signage – $34,000
This project will create an integrated bike/hike trail system throughout
Dubuque to encourage recreation and wellness. The project will connect
to the Port of Dubuque Riverwalk Heritage Trail and Mines of Spain State
Recreation Area. On-street routes will be marked with trailblazer signs
in English and Spanish as well as striped bike lanes where appropriate
to provide safe and ready access from neighborhoods to off-road rails,
transit stops, schools and parks where restrooms benches and bike racks
will be available. The project will include kiosk-style system maps
at trail heads and interpretive signs at points of interest
Fairfield
Downtown Streetscape – $200,000
This project redesigns the walkways of downtown Fairfield, extending
3 blocks north from the town square, and provides the aesthetic elements
as well as practical pedestrian enhancements necessary to accommodate
residents and visitors to the downtown. It provides a unified design
for pedestrian sidewalk nodes, lighting, landscaping, and benches that
will substantially improve pedestrian access and safety, while contributing
to a beautiful aesthetic experience for visitors and residents. The
Great Places phase of this project focuses on the area around the new
Fairfield Arts & Convention Center.
Fairfield Loop Trail – $50,000
This project will build a 3-mile segment of a planned 17 miles Loop
Trail, surrounding the City of Fairfield. The trail meets AASHTO guidelines
and is 10 feet wide. The entire trail system has already been awarded
two National Endowment for the Arts grants for integration of public
art into the trail system.
Fairfield Bikeway/Walkway Plan – $25,000
This project will construct a network of usable street and sidewalk
routes that will encourage local citizens to get outside and exercise.
The plan is also devised to encourage children to walk and ride their
bikes to school. Additionally, the network of routes acts as spokes
connecting all areas of the community to the Fairfield Loop Trail.
Maasdam Barns – $31,143
The Maasdam Barns are being developed as a tourist, recreational, and
educational center in conjunction with a major highway improvement between
Des Moines and Burlington. The barns will showcase pre-industrial revolution
agriculture, when the “horse was king.” The farmstead will
showcase the achievements of the Louden and Turney companies, the largest
manufacturers in Fairfield of that era, and important national contributors
to pre-industrial and industrial agriculture. This project focuses on
moving a house and garage to the farmstead, which will serve as a Welcome
Center for the Maasdam Barns, residence for caretakers, and entry point
into Fairfield and Jefferson County.
Vedic Observatory – $16,500
A local developer within Maharishi Vedic City created a unique park
and observatory that has become a popular tourist location. The observatory
contains 10 large sculptures, which are replicas of ancient sundials.
He donated this project, including the land under it, to the city. This
project will be adding sidewalks, signage, a fence, lighting, landscaping,
decorative benches, parking facilities and will repair the surface to
observatory structures that have suffered weathering.
Sustainable Learning and Visitors’ Center
– $106,625
This project is the first step in the multi-phased development of a
Sustainability Learning and Visitors’ Center. This project will
acquire 12 acres of land adjacent to Abundance Ecovillage to provide
a parking lot, a visitors’ kiosk, dormitories, agricultural demonstration
projects and space for a large future center. A self-guided tour trail
will connect the kiosk to alternative energy and water installations
located in the adjoining Ecovillage. This project provides the foundation
for construction of an indoor center for visitors, classroom space,
and dining facilities in a future second phase and for a larger complex
in phase three.
Guttenberg
Guttenberg Riverfront Marina – $528,000
This project completes work on the Guttenberg Marina. Tasks include
site preparation, dredging, shore stabilization, wetland mitigation
and mussel relocation, and installation of a perimeter ice protection
system.
Jackson County
Walkways for Life – $179,566
This project combines two Great Places projects: the Mill Creek Trail
project and the Downtown Sidewalk project in Bellevue. The Downtown
Sidewalk will connect the north and the south ends of the current walkway
by bringing the same streetscape theme and handicapped accessibility
to the downtown business district. The Mill Creek Trail portion will
extend the walkway system from the south end of Bellevue westward along
Mill Creek.
Maquoketa River Trail – $35,970
This project concerns the enhancement of the existing Maquoketa River
Water and will include designation of the Maquoketa River as an Iowa
Water Trail with standardized signage and information kiosks. The project
will also incorporate the acquisition of an access site on the Western
edge of Jackson County in the town of Canton. This access point will
provide a site for public access, a primitive campground and canoe livery.
This project will also include the addition of two access locations
and rehabilitation of the existing access points along the river system.
Jackson County Great Places Bike Trail –
$127,399
This project will include the development of the first two segments
of the bike trail. The first segment will be a 1.4 mile shoulder enhancement
on county road 63rd St. located one mile north of Maquoketa. This project
is also the first segment of a planned trail system to connect the city
of Maquoketa to the Maquoketa Caves State Park. The second project will
include the construction of a 1.9 mile off-road trail connecting the
existing four-mile Jackson County Recreation Trail with the one-mile
Copper Creek Trail in Preston. This segment is also part of the long
range trail plan for Jackson County.
Clinton Engines Museum – $125,000
This project is an effort to create a museum highlighting what was once
the world’s largest producer of Clinton Engines – the Clinton
Engines Administration Building, depicting the development of business
and industry in the Upper Midwest.
Insane Asylum at Jackson County Farm – $45,017
This project will rehabilitate the Jackson County Insane Asylum. These
activities will preserve this excellent example of 19th Century mental
health treatment.
Mason City
Park Inn Hotel & City National Bank Building
– $500,000
This project will help acquire the City National Bank Building as well
as stabilize the Park Inn Hotel basement and repair the balcony. This
work is being done as one small piece of the larger goal of rehabilitating
and reuniting the Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank Building, both
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Wayfinding for the Cultural Crescent – $25,000
The comprehensive Wayfinding project for the Downtown District will
aid visitors to Mason City. Phase I is concerned with developing a community/downtown
system for pedestrians and drivers. Phase I targets the cultural amenities
within the city, such as Music Man Square, Park Inn and MacNider Art
Museum.
Mason City Architectural Interpretive Center –
$66,780
This project involves building an Interpretive Center adjacent to the
Stockman House museum. It will present illustrations and displays of
prominent architectural styles and design elements to be seen in Mason
City, with an emphasis on the city’s significant and unique Prairie
School designs, as well as artifacts of the Stockman House. The center
will house a gallery space, a reception area, a 40-seat presentation
theater, a sales shop and public restrooms.
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